BODY language spoke volumes as two teenager friends stood with their heads bowed before a court and pleaded guilty to assault.

The 18-year-olds, from Barry, admitted causing actual bodily harm to another man on February 20 this year. They had left the dock on bail when Judge David Wynn Morgan told their lawyers: “I’m seeing clear evidence of contrition even at this stage. They appear to be very ashamed of themselves.”

No details of the assault, committed in the Vale of Glamorgan, were put before Cardiff Crown Court at yesterday’s hearing. But both smartly-dressed defendants, Jake Haysham, of Cwrt Eir Lys, and Anthony Wakefield, of Mountbatten Road, had no previous convictions.

Judge Morgan said: “Your guilty pleas today will stand you in good stead when you return here to be sentenced.” That will be at the end of September, after reports.